Jeffrey Mittelstadt
University of North Carolina
Kenan-Flagler Business School
“In a very short time, Jeff Mittelstadt has become a shining star on the UNC Chapel Hill Campus. His approach of ‘Total World Collaboration” resonates not only with students, but with faculty, staff, alumni and professionals. Jeff has an uncanny ability to bring together different people from different organizations with different interests and find the common space to explore challenges and work toward solutions and impact. One notable example of having an exponential impact includes our Launching Investment for Future Transformation (LIFT) Challenge which brings students from all over the world together to propose blended finance and impact investing strategies for sustainable solutions that will drive social equity and economic mobility. Students tell me his class was one of the hardest, but also one of the best and helped them pull together the skills and talents to pursue the careers they want.” – Tracy Triggs-Matthews, Associate Director, Ackerman Center for Excellence in Sustainability
Jeffrey Mittelstadt, 47, is Professor of the Practice of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. He is also Executive Director of the Ackerman Center for Excellence in Sustainability (ACES).
He is a career sustainability professional dedicated to using the triple bottom line, regenerative strategies and breakthrough capitalism concepts to drive profitable business opportunities for long-term positive social and environmental impact. His work and research interests focus on strategy and innovation shaped by the intersectionality among industries, stakeholders, social and environmental impact issues, and impact-driven profitability. Some current initiatives include exploring opportunities related to sustainability and sports, blended finance and impact investing, biodiversity and nature-based solutions, cleantech, apparel and textiles, food and agriculture, and sustainability business-use cases for large language models (LLMs).
Mittelstadt was awarded the Chancellor’s Student Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2022, a University award to recognize outstanding undergraduate instruction by both faculty and teaching assistants. A student committee reviewed the teaching nominations on the basis of demonstrated and consistent teaching excellence, success in positively affecting a broad spectrum of students both in and outside the classroom, and creation of a dynamic learning environment.
He was appointed to the Carolina Sustainability Council, which provides sustainability guidance for all of UNC-Chapel Hill. He is on the decision-making team for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Champion Sustainability Revolving Fund.
Mittelstadt founded the non-profit WildSides, which creates educational and documentary multimedia, including the award-winning film “Staring Down Fate.” He designed, implemented, and managed a national sustainable manufacturing initiative for the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM).
BACKGROUND
At current institution since what year? 2020
Education: MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, concentrating in sustainable enterprise and entrepreneurship; MA in mass communication and journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill; master of environmental management from Duke University, concentrating in resource economics and policy
List of Undergraduate courses you teach:
- Sustainable Business and Social Enterprise
- Sustainable Business and Impact Entrepreneurship
- Introduction to Business
- Global Immersion Elective: Sustainability and Business in Portugal (The location changes. His last GIE was in Montréal, Québec in Canada).
TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR
I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … After I released my feature length documentary, “Staring Down Fate,” I was an adjunct faculty member at Winston-Salem State University teaching a sustainability and food multimedia course and a media law course. I was contemplating what to do next in my career. I kept returning to the fact that students’ wide view of the world, optimism, desire for positive impact and creativity simply energize me. They help me progress and inspire me to continue challenging the way we do things. It’s so important to be open to change. Students teach me, which allows me to continuously learn and keep growing. I also thought about the work I love most. I am motivated by learning about other people’s perspectives and identifying solutions to local and global social and environmental sustainability issues. I truly believe we need to mobilize the power of business and investment to enable the exponential improvements that we need to make in the tight timeline before us. All those factors and my passion for my alma mater made me want to be a business school professor, specifically at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. So, that is how I decided to be a business school professor!
What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? As a professor of the practice, I focus on applied projects, corporate and entrepreneurial sustainability strategy, and industry research. I also create projects and initiatives that enhance students’ learning and provide them with opportunities to apply sustainability frameworks to real industry, corporate, investment and entrepreneurial strategy. My work includes strategy and innovation related to circularity, sustainability and sports, blended finance and impact investing, biodiversity and nature-based solutions, cleantech, apparel and textiles, food and agriculture, the built environment, transportation, carbon removal and manufacturing. I collaborate with other researchers and academicians to create impactful initiatives.
One example is my collaboration with the ChatNetZero team, through which I will identify business-use cases for large language models to facilitate more impactful, successful and credible climate strategy for businesses and investors.
If I weren’t a business school professor, I’d be … A multimedia documentarian applying sustainability frameworks to mobilize stakeholders toward collaboration for positive impact-driven change. This would be another way to mobilize my desire for facilitating multi-stakeholder solutions to social, environmental and economic impact issues. I often refer to my motivation as striving for “Total World Collaboration.”
What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I would defer to my students. They are the people who determine what makes me stand out. I do this work because I want to learn from as many perspectives as possible and work together to create positive impact. I work hard to create a culture of teamwork in the classroom because every individual student learns more in my courses when we all work together. This also provides them with a real taste of how sustainability success is predicated upon multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder and multi-functional collaboration.
One word that describes my first time teaching: Exhilaration!
Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: Students will ask you why they did not earn an extra 0.4 points on a small assignment. The only struggle I have is with the attachment to grades rather than concentrating on learning as much as we can about the breadth and depth of sustainability. I feel it’s much more important that we push ourselves to get things wrong, learn from that, move forward and challenge our perceived limits.
Professor I most admire and why: Dr. Stuart Hart taught the first sustainability and business course I ever took back in 2002. He also created the sustainability and business program here at UNC Kenan-Flagler in the ’90s. He helped shape my passion for identifying and implementing business initiatives and movements based on positive social and environmental impact.
TEACHING BUSINESS SCHOOL STUDENTS
What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? Students help me avoid getting stuck in my ways. They help me continuously challenge business-as-usual and change-as-usual every day, so that we can maximize positive impact. I love that I constantly learn from them and keep growing. They are looking for ways that business, investment and profitability can support social and environmental impact. They also are looking for ways that social and environmental impact can reshape, redefine and advance business, investment and profitability.
What is most challenging? The most challenging aspect of teaching business students is fighting obsession with grades so they can concentrate on learning.
In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Creative!
In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Static.
When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as …I think some students believe I’m too demanding and some believe I’m very encouraging.
LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
What are your hobbies? Anything that involves spending time with my family, like preparing meals with my wife and playing with my son! I also enjoy eating all foods to experience cultures, traditions and new evolutions in food. I simply love eating. I am definitely a sports fanatic, especially for our Tar Heels!
How will you spend your summer? This summer I will start with our sustainability Global Immersion Elective in Portugal, and then travel with my wife and my son. I’ll work with our Ackerman Center for Excellence in Sustainability summer interns in June, July and August. Throughout that time my wife and I will take my son to museums, camps and to visit family.
Favorite place(s) to vacation: Our favorite family vacation spot is Carolina Beach! But we love to visit family throughout the U.S. and to visit new places whenever we can.
Favorite book(s): Does an epic poem count? If so, “The Iliad” by Homer.
What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? As a documentarian, I actually do not have one favorite film. I have certain aspects of films that speak to me at different times and for different reasons. For example, “Planet Earth,” “The Cove” and “Harlan County” influenced my appreciation for different types of documentary cinematography, like cinema verité. They also highlighted the importance of film in driving positive change. The films “The Boy who Harnessed the Wind,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Just Mercy,” “Milk” and “Good Will Hunting” inspired me at different points in my life to challenge perceptions, inspire change and follow our dreams in the face of doubt, inequity and perceived “impossibilities.”
What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? This changes a lot depending on my mood. If I need motivation to challenge the status quo, I might listen to punk rock and ’90s rap/hip hop. If I am excited about collaboration and feel-good moments, I might listen to reggae and ska music that can mimic our heart beat. If I’m editing a fast-moving portion of a film, I might listen to techno or different types of dance music.
THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this … More multidisciplinary teamwork across schools, departments and campuses along with expanded multi-stakeholder collaboration to create new markets, new business models and new norms.
In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at … Collaborating across industries, with competitors and with stakeholders impacted by their work from cradle-to-grave. Companies and organizations could do better at more fully exploring interactions among social, environmental, governance and economic metrics to create new impact-driven opportunities to increase long-term profit and positive impact.
I’m grateful for … My wife and our son; our dogs; my entire family through the generations past, present and future; my friends, students and colleagues; diverse perspectives; and our interconnectedness with people, cultures, wildlife and all the ecosystems throughout the world.
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